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Thursday, April 12, 2018

Woman at the heart of ugly affair with Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens says he struck her, threatened her, shoved her to the ground, and called her a whore

Eric Greitens

A woman who had an extramarital affair with Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens said she felt coerced into having sex, and he threatened to release a photo of her bound and blindfolded if she ever mentioned his name and the affair, according to a report released yesterday by the Missouri State House.

A Missouri state House committee released a graphic report Wednesday including lurid details of alleged conduct by Gov. Eric Greitens with a woman who testified under oath that Greitens subjected her to non-consensual sexual activity and violence.

The report could set the stage for impeachment proceedings against the embattled Republican governor, who already faces criminal invasion of privacy charges in addition to multiple ongoing probes.

The woman, whose name was concealed by the committee, said under oath that the governor staged and took a photo of her bound and blindfolded, and then threatened to release the photo, were she to disclose their encounter.

"You're not going to mention my name. Don't even mention my name to anybody at all, because if you do, I'm going to take these pictures, and I'm going to put them everywhere I can. They are going to be everywhere," he said, according to her testimony, "and then everyone will know what a little whore you are." The governor previously denied that he had ever blackmailed or threatened the woman.

The CNN report included graphic details about the woman's encounters with Greitens:

The woman testified that during their first sexual encounter, Greitens held his penis near her face as she was "uncontrollably crying." She said she felt coerced into oral sex, and agreed with the statement that she "didn't feel necessarily able to leave without performing oral sex" and feared for her "physical self."

In another meeting, the woman said Greitens asked her whether she had been sexually active with anyone else, including her husband. When she replied that she had, Greitens "slapped me across my face, just like hard," the woman said.

During several sexual encounters with his hair stylist the year before he was elected Missouri's governor, Eric Greitens struck her in the face, touched her crotch without her consent and called her a "whore," the woman told a Missouri House committee, according to newly released documents.

The claims add disturbing new layers to the single criminal allegation Greitens faces — a felony invasion-of-privacy charge, for allegedly taking and transmitting a semi-nude photo of her without her consent.

In sworn testimony made March 7, the woman stood by that allegation, as presented in the House report released Wednesday afternoon. She also painted a broader picture of Greitens as a controlling, jealous lover for whom violence or the threat of it was an integral part of the affair.

Bullying was a major part of the relationship, according to the stltoday.com report:

During one encounter in the summer of 2015, the woman testified, Greitens struck her and shoved her to the ground as they became intimate in his Central West End home."And I instantly just started bawling and was just like, 'What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you?'" she told the committee. "And I just laid there crying while he was just like ... 'You're fine, you're fine.'"During another encounter, she alleges, he physically restrained her from leaving his home and insisted she give him oral sex, even though she was crying.

Greitens reacted angrily to the report's release. From CNN:

Greitens, in a statement to reporters prior to the report's release Wednesday, called the investigation a "political witch hunt" and characterized the findings as "tabloid trash gossip" based on "lies and falsehoods," although witnesses interviewed with the committee under oath, and the committee found the woman to be "an overall credible witness." The governor declined to testify.

His response Wednesday echoed statements by his team in recent weeks, which have sought to frame the governor's scandal as a partisan endeavor. But a Republican majority authorized the House committee's investigation, which was also led by a Republican.